Carlos Tevez searching for Champions League redemption

Juventus striker Carlos Tevez says he’s searching for UEFA Champions League redemption this season after admitting he behaved ‘badly’ during his tumultuous spell with Manchester City.

The Argentine, who won a Champions League title with Manchester United in 2008, has now scored six times in eight games during the competition, after failing to score a goal during his four seasons in the tournament while playing for Manchester City.

In September 2011, Tevez was initially suspended for two weeks by City after the striker refused to play during the club’s 2-0 defeat to Bayern Munich in the Champions League group stages. Following the incident, then-manager Roberto Mancini declared he never wanted Tevez to play for City again.

The striker then walked out of the club to return to Argentina in the wake of the scandal before ultimately returning to City towards the end of the season to help the club win the Premier League title.

Now, playing a more predominant role for Juventus, Tevez is confident he can win the Champions League and regrets the mistakes he made while playing in England.

“It [goalscoring form] is because I’m playing in the Champions League all the time,” Tevez said. “At United there was a fantastic Ronaldo, who came ahead of everyone, but now they see me as a leader at Juventus and that gives me confidence.

“I made a mistake at City. There was no more trust between us and I reacted by disappearing.

“I behaved badly, I know, but here they never stopped believing in me.”

Despite being the best team in Italy for the past few years, Juventus have not been considered favorites to win the Champions League during that period.

Even though the Italian champions are thought to be a difficult draw, many experts still believe Juventus are not one of the front runners in this season’s competition.

But Tevez disagrees with that assessment.

“Juventus can win the Champions League,” the striker said. “The match against Borussia Dortmund in the last round showed that we can get far.

“It all depends on us. Juventus can beat anyone and we showed that. There are no teams beyond our capabilities. Not even one.

“At Manchester United there were incredible champions such as Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney.

“I think that here instead there is a team. We are very hard to beat, like Atletico Madrid last year, but with a different (result in the) final.”

Programming note: Juventus vs. AS Monaco will be shown LIVE on Tuesday at 2:45pm EST on FOX Sports 2 and FoxSoccer2Go.